Science, Technology and Development ISSN : 0950-0707

Popular Culture and Popular Religion:Re-Reading History through Memory in thestory of Kannagi

Dr. Muhammed Maheen A. Professor. Department of History University of Calicut,

Abstract:A vital part of the history of women in is that, denied the authority of public presence, they nonetheless left their mark, sometimes faint but often strong, in the form of poetry. India is popular for its wide range of epic and mythological narratives which are numbered among the fine classics in contemporary society. The Indian epics are full of discourses on morality,etiquette and on sacredness. Most of the epics are replete with accounts of women who are revered for their virtue. A woman is considered to be a 'pativrata' or a chaste one when she surrenders herself to her family and husband irrespective of their treatment of her. In a way, women are looked on as the repository of family welfare and spirituality. The equal of Savitri and , she is endowed with the beneficial feminine power of the Goddess which commands both respect and awe.

Key words: Cilappatikaram , Darika , Kannaki, ,.

1. Introduction

Mythology is an important feature of every culture. The main character in is usually Gods, Goddesses, Demigods or Supernatural humans. Myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests and closely linked to religion or spirituality and considered to be true accounts of their remote past.

There are Plethora of books, contain the element of , ritual, folklore etc., are authored by celebrated writers like Thomas Bulfinch, David Dean Shulman, Henry White Head, Joseph Campbell, Friedhelm Hardy and the like. In their classical works, they exposed various aspects related to religious culture.

The mythological role models present few options for women. They can be virtuous and suffer like Sita. Innumerable vrata legends narrate how a virtuous and uncomplaining sufferer finally triumphs; how can they be virtuous but assertive and aggressive, like the dangerous Goddesses, as in the story of Kannaki- in Cilappatikaram as the Goddess – women equation in Sakta Tantras in . In the Sakta Tantras, the Goddess reclaims her supremacy by combining polymorphous traits in her characterization. In the Tantras, the Goddess combines the dynamic polarity of contrasting traits: benign and terrific, erotic and demure, motherly and virginal, saintly, and heroic, ferociously powerful yet calm and silent. 1

By the 6th century, Aryan influence had penetrated the whole of the Tamil land and her kings and chiefs worshipped and supported the Gods of , Jainism and . The indigenous style of poetry was rapidly altering under the influence of and Tamil poets took to writing long poems which they called by the Sanskrit name Kavya. The earliest and the greatest is the Jewelled Anklet 'Silappadikaram'. Though written for an educated audience and in faultless literary style it is near to the life of the people, it deals with the lives of two ordinary folks enmeshed in unhappy circumstances and it sounds a note of true tragedy. The work is authored by Ilango Adikal, a grandson of the great Cola king Karikalan, who lived in the 1st or 2nd Century A.D. He successfully drew together all the themes of earlier Tamil poets and welded them into a whole, in the framework of the story of the luckless Kovalan and Kannaki; often unparalleled elsewhere in Indian literature. It is imbued with both the ferocity of the early and their stern respect for justice and incidentally, it throws much light on early Tamil political ideas. 2

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II. The Kannaki Legend

The Kannaki legend of Cilappathikaram is deep-rooted in the folklore of Kerala. The geographical, historical and linguistic features of the legend helped its spread throughout Kerala. The folkloristic tradition emphasizes the relation of to Kannaki in Tottam Paattukal in general and particularly ritualistic dances, religious ceremonies, ancient art forms, traditional performances etc., mainly centred on the Dravidian cult. 3

Malayalam literature is a harmonious blending of Dravidian and Aryan elements. The oldest compositions may be traced to Dravidian sources. Among the Pazhaya Pattukal, the earliest type of literature in , Thottam Pattu (Religious ballads) which is called Bhadrakali Pattu is of sizable collection among the other group of songs. Thottam Paattu originated with the Kannaki legend and flourished under the influence of the cult in Kerala.

The Kannaki legend in Cilappathikaram is seen abundantly in folk songs of Kerala. Thottam Paattukal, a vast and rich branch of folk songs deal with the life and activities of Kannaki and Kovalam. 'The first part deals with the killing of Darika, an and the second part deals with the grief of Kannaki and how Kannaki took the form of Bhadrakali. 4

III. Darikavadham

The killing of Darika, a tale that appears in both oral and written versions throughout Kerala and forms the basis of the performance rituals dedicated to Bhagavathi, a powerful independent Mother Goddess. A brief version of the story is that the demon Darika, after intense ascetic practice, secured a boon from the god that he would be invincible and could not be killed by any man. Moreover, a drop of his blood falling on the ground would immediately generate thousands more for himself. Thus empowered, Darika began to harass the world and commit numerous depredations. Finally, Goddess Bhadrakali was created to kill the demon. In the fierce battle that followed kali beheaded Darika. 5

The variegated physical and social landscape of Kerala was characterised not only by rich cultural diversity and cooperation but also by conflict. The mythic battle between the demonic king Darika and the warrior Goddess Bhadrakali has thus be seen by many as an allegory of the historical conflict between real political rivals.

In the Kerala context, it is noteworthy that Bhadrakali is closely associated with the persona of the 'Yakshi', a vampiric succubus, drinking the blood of her victims while seducing them. The motif drinking blood is a symbolic displacement of the intaking of semen by the Vagina, a symbol of fertilisation and life. Thus the worship of the Bhagavati cult, an embodiment of fertility is also a rare specimen of the popular culture of Kerala. 6

The themes of aggression and bloodthirstiness made kali predominant 7 throughout the medieval period and were considered to be a tutelary to local kingdoms and tarawads. Sometimes kali took the form of Bhagavati, Sakthiswarupini, Mahisasuramardini etc. to save the land and people from evils. 8

IV. Kannaki took the form of Bhadrakali

Kannagi is the heroine of the ancient Tamil epic Silapadhikaram . (Tale of the Anklet) Her husband, Kovalan, of Poompuhar, deserts her, seeking the love of a courtesan, . He later returns to Kannagi, who forgives him. She gave him her anklet, to sell to raise money and they migrated to city. He is implicated falsely and executed for stealing the Pandya queen's anklet (filled with pearls) that resembled Kannagi's (filled with rubies). An enraged Kannagi challenges the Pandya king with the evidence to prove his innocence, tears off her breast in rage and flings it on the city of Madurai which then goes up in flames. The ruler dies on realizing the mistake. She rails against the Gods for their injustice and in her fury, Madurai's is devoured by fire, as stated earlier. However, at the request of Goddess Meenakshi, she calmed down and later attained salvation and becomes a Goddess, worshipped by hill people. Silapadikaram tells the story of her revenge and is written by Ilango Adikal. 9

The impact of the story of Kannagi is that it revived the matriarchal worship that prevailed before the advent of the Aryans and Muslims. The practice of honouring and even worshipping

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women who committed appears to have been very old in Southern India. Kannagi, the heroine of the Tamil poem Silappadikaram, died on hearing of the unjust death inflicted upon her husband by the Pandya king of Madurai. She was henceforth worshipped in shrines built for her throughout Southern India and Ceylon. In the latter Island and many parts of especially Tamilnadu, she is known as Pattini and is very popular. 10 The general belief about pattini-k-kal is that it intended to keep alive the memories of the chaste ladies, or women who were killed by injudicious acts. Hence they worshipped such ancestors to save the village from their wrath.

Tradition connects Kodungallur Sri Kurumba Bhagavati temple to the temple consecrated by Cera king Senguttuvan to commemorate Kannaki, the heroine of the Tamil epic Cilappathikaram. A large number of devotees consider Kannaki as an incarnation of Kali, especially when Madurai was burning 11 and connected with the Pattini cult.

In Kodungallur, the devotees view the Goddess as Orramulacci. The possibilities of the Bhagavati temple as the ancient centre of the Pattini cult was based on the reason,that the foundation of this temple was laid in a strong non-Brahmanic tradition. Meena Bharani is a festival conducted at Kondungalloor devotees especially from the lower strata of community proceed to Kodungalloor singing songs praising Bhadrakali on their pilgrimage to the Bhagavati temple. Similarly, there are songs related to Kannaki and Kovalan are also sung. The festival and the songs enrich the traditional belief that the Goddess Kannaki is installed at the Kodungallur temple. The non-Aryan influence in the Kodungallur temple is visible in the Kavutheendal ceremony. Some argue that this is a symbol of the capture of a non-Hindu place of worship by the . 12 Today the main rituals of the Bharani festival are considered as an enactment of the Kali-Darika war and the appearance of Palaka Velan (healer of Goddess) in the Kavutheendal ceremony, is an indication of lower caste Hindu presence in the temple rights, 13 where the ceremony signifies the revival of an afflicted deity. If the deity is revived, the community is also revived. The deity who is propitiated for the well being of the devotees is also cared for and helped back by the devotees during her illness (smallpox or Vasuri mala). This is the finest example of the give and takes relation between man and deity. It is this relation that supports and popularizes the concept of indigenous Bhakti, a non-Ayran form of reverence in the Hindu pantheon. 14

The act of Kannagi envisions a possibility of resistance and an ensuing rebellion against the prevalent injustices in society. It is a symbol of the vindictive female body as a means of defiance and confrontation against the patriarchal subjugation of women. Tears off one of her breasts to show that she is a rebel against injustice and uses it like a bomb on the city of Madurai.15 The moral of the story is that the fire of her chastity burns up the city of Madurai. At last, the patron Goddess of the city interceded with Kannagi and she agreed to withdraw her curse and the fire abated. Weak with loss of blood from her self-amputated breast, Kannagi struggled to a hill outside the city, where after a few days she died and was reunited with Kovalan in heaven. She was deified and she became the patron Goddess of wifely loyalty and chastity. 16

Here the Karpu indicates a cultural signifier. George L Hart in his article women and the sacred in Ancient Tamilnadu in Kumkum Roy (ed.) women in Early Indian Societies makes an interesting observation that the Karpu of the wife consisted of a sort of asceticism. The power of Karpu was to be both feared and revered because it could be both boons giving as well as extremely destructive if threatened. Karpu is treated as being synonymous with divinity – Kadavul Karpu. 17

The fearful aspect of 'Karpu' connects it with another recurrent term in early Tamil literature, namely, 'ananku'. The coupling of the term ananku with chastity or Karpu lends a more nuanced understanding of chastity by connecting it with the nature of female sexuality. In Dravidian cultures, the spiritual power of women was linked to both the fear of pollution (through menstrual blood etc) and the male fear of female sexuality. 18

The encounter between Kannaki and the Pandyan king reminds us of the Creon-Antigone Clash (a tragic Greek play authored by Sophocles) written in the 5th century B.C) as the two scenes effectively symbolise the age-old conflict between the state and the individual. The two women characters have become archetypes, one of chastity and the other of sisterly love. Antigone, who sacrifices her life fighting for an honourable burial for her brother, is praised as the most sisterly of souls, as the very incarnation of sisterhood. The lyrical complaints of Antigone and Kannaki at the most tragic moment of their lives are heart rendering. Kannaki's lamentations, more even the stoniest of hearts. 19

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Eventhough the concept of Karpu served as an agent for Kannagi to occupy heavenly status, female sexuality (ananku), menstrual blood etc stand as a metaphor of women empowerment. Kannagi, an embodiment of love, affection, and patience later fight with the ruler, a symbol of war and power. Her left breast (Ottamulachi) become archetypical of maternity and power. She was endowed with divinity and motherhood and thereby fertility and production and elevated into a form of Mother Goddess. It is pertinent to note that the nomadic race when began to settle down as agricultural communities they started worshipping the spirit as female and connected her with fertility. In primitive society, the clan was centred on women as she is imparting of cultural traits,a symbol of generation and an actual producer of life; as permeating all living things through the energies of the soil. Her organs were thought to be endowed with generative power and so had been the life-giving symbols. 20

Kannaki is a woman who upheld the prestige of entire womanhood through her act of self- mutilation. As a chaste lady, she cut off one of her breasts and setablaze the entire city of Madurai to revenge the fraudulent people of that city. Female breasts have two kinds of representation in our social life: the foremost thing is associated with nurture and the latter one is associated with sexuality. Both represent fertility. So here Kannaki cut off a breast, which is also a symbol of fertility and prosperity. Maybe this is an attempt to sterilize either the land or herself. Torring off her breast may be an indication of the meaninglessness of widowhood or to pointed out that one can lead a chaste life even without sex. Obeyesekere, an eminent anthropologist, observes this is an act of self-castration. Breast tearing symbolism is one way in which it is possible to carry out a fairly satisfactory castration of a female by cutting off the breast. 21

George L. Hart identifies the predominant locus of ananku in Sangam literature as in the sexual parts of the female anatomy: breasts, loins and genitals. The Goddess Bhagavati embodies all these aspects of ananku: malevolent female power that manifests as both violent and sexual energy. 22 This power, because it inhered in the physical landscape as well as in the bodies of women, was essential for the nourishment of life and society and yet always threatened to get out of control, destroying life. 23 Agricultural and human fertility were intimately related so that rituals promoting the growth of crops developed using metaphors of the feminine reproductive cycle: the Goddess Bhagavati herself embodies much of this symbolism. This variant concept of womanhood in modern traits has been theorized by Simone De Beauvoir in her 'position of women non-western culture'.24

V. Conclusion

To conclude, here we can point out the study of James George Frazer , a Scottish anthropologist, and his work The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (comparative study of mythology and religion). The Golden Bough attempts to define the shared elements of religious belief and scientific thought, discussing fertility rites, human sacrifice and many other symbols and practices associated with primitive practices. 25Likewise the mythology of the Bhagavati cult is thus an allegory of living history; variant cultural streams that have merged into, reflecting Kerala's unique culture.

References

1. Mandakaranta Bose (ed.), Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval and Modern India, O.U.P. New Delhi, 2000, pp. 109-16.

2. A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India. A Survey of the History and Culture of the Indian Sub Continent Before the Coming of the Muslims, New Delhi, 1982, pp. 571-72.

3. Chumar Choondal, Studies in Folklore of Kerala, Trivandrum, 1978, pp. 16ff.

4. Ibid.

5. Vide, T.G. Vaidyanathan and Jeffrey J. Kripal (ed.), On Freud's Desk. A Reader in Psychoanalysis and Hinduism. O.U.P, New Delhi, 2002, p.340.

6. Ibid., pp. 341ff.

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7. Sarah Caldwell, The Bloodthirsty Tongue and the Self Feeding Breast: Homosexual Fellatio Fantasy in a South Indian Ritual Tradition' in T.G. Vaidhyanathan et al., (ed.), op. cit., pp. 339-63.

8. The Goddess Mahisasuramardhini: Myth, Representation and Historical Role in the Hinduization of India. For details see, Heinrich Von Stietencron, Hindu Myth, Hindu History, Religion, Arts and Politics, Ranikhet, 2005, pp. 115ff.

9. Thirumaavalavan, Talisman. Extreme Emotions of Dalit Liberation, Kolkatta, 203, p. 59; Stuart Blackburn, Print, Folklore and Nationalism in Colonial South India, Delhi, 2003, p.17.

10. H. Sastri, South Indian Images of Gods and Goddess (1916), 1986, New Delhi, p.229.

11. Brenda Beck, The study of Tamil Epic: Several versions of Silappathikaram compared , Journal of Tamil Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1972, pp. 23-38.

12. V.V Haridas, Samoothirinattile Kshethrangal , in Kshethra Sopanam, Vol. 22, Trichur, 2008, pp. 11-14.

13. For details of Meena Bharani, Kodungallur Bhagavathi, Kavutheendal and specific indigenous non-Brahmanic Bhakti see, Ravi Kuttikad, Thannaro Tanaro padunna makkal (Mal.), Kottayam, 2015; P.G. Rajendran, Kshetra Vijnanakosham (Mal.), Kottayam, 2000, pp. 368-75.

14. and humans are bound together in a mutual giving of boons and service, and humans are as necessary to the Gods as areGods to humans. see Susan Snow Wadley, : Power in the Conceptual Structure of Karimpur Religion, Delhi, 1985.

15. C.Sophia, etal.,Feminist voice in Meenakandasamys' poem Ms . Militancy ,International Journal of Research , Vol. VIII, Issue 1, January 2019, pp. 168-71.

16. R. Parthasarathy, The Cilippathikaram of Ilanko Adikal: An Epic of South India, Columbia University Press, 1993; K. Ayyappa Panikkar (ed.), Cilappatikaram , Ilango Adikal (Mal.) Viswasahityamala, Kottayam, 1986, pp. 15-73.

17. George L. Hart, Women and the Sacred in Ancient Tamilnadu in Kumkum Roy (ed.) Women in Early Indian Societies , New Delhi, 1999.

18. Ibid., Friedhlem Hardy, The Religious Culture of India. Power, Love and Wisdom , Cambridge University Press, 1994.

19. P. Marudunayagam, Ancient Tamil Poetry and Poetic: New Perspectives , , 2010, pp. 199 – 200.

20. For a similar version see, E.O. James, The Cult of the Mother Goddess: An Archaeological and Documentary Study , (1959) London, 2018; Enrich Newman, The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype , New Jersey, 1983.

21. Vide, Gananath Obeyesekere, The Goddess Pattini and the Lord Buddha. Notes on the Myth of the Birth of the Deity' Social Campus, May 1,1973;Stuart H Blackburn,‘The Cult of the Goddess Pattini’, Journal of Asian and African Studies , Vol. 21, Issue 1-2, University of Chicago, 1986, pp. 136-38. Also see, Minna Saavala, ‘Sterilized Mothers: Women's Personhood and Family Planning in Rural South India’ in Lina Fruzzetti and Sirpa Tenhunen (eds.), Culture, Power and Agency. Gender in Indian Ethnography , Kolkota, 2006, pp. 142-44. 22. George L. Hart, The Poems of Ancient Tamil: Their Milieu and Their Sanskrit Counterparts , OUP, New Delhi, 1999; George L Hart, op.cit . 23. In Kannaki's case, once she gets self amputated her breast, she was out of control, flinging it on to the street of Madurai, causing the entire city to burn. Shakti is not simply an outcome of biological functions which separate the feminine body from the masculine, pre-pubescent

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girls also have shakti, and as a cosmic force, it is present everywhere. For similar studies see Shelley Stamp Lindsey, Horror, Femininity and Carriers' Monstrous Puberty, Texas, 1996, pp. 279-95; Valentine E Daniel, Fluid Signs, Being a Person the Tamil Way. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1984, pp. 185-88. 24. Simon De Beauvoir, Position of Women Non-Western Culture. For details see, The Second Sex, New York, (1953), 2010. 25. James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, Dover Publications,New York, (1890), 2002.

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